I WAS lately visiting a man who was approaching death, and who had shown no evidence of repentance towards God, nor of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I spoke to him of the Savior, dwelling much on His sufferings on the cross for the sinner.
Waiting for some response, I was astonished to hear him say, "Poor man!" of course referring to the Lord Jesus. Concerning himself he spoke with complacency of how he used to deny himself by staying at home on Sundays to read "the service" through to his crippled wife, who was unable to go to church.
Dear reader, can you discern this man's mistake? He did not see that he himself was the poor marl, and that the Lord Jesus Christ was the One of Whom it is written that, "although he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”
Fellow sinner, have you realized that you are a suitable object of pity? The absence of everything good in you qualifies you for becoming an object of God's grace. Your unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God to you, as nakedness commends clothing, and sickness commends medicine.
Be warned in time. Learn a lesson from the crucified robber, who there and then, when Jesus hung beside him, acknowledged Him, not as an object of pity, but as the dispenser of God's grace to ruined sinners.